


When In Doubt, Ask Your Ghost Dad

by ageofgeek



Category: Doctor Sleep (2019), Doctor Sleep - Stephen King
Genre: (but dan's a ghost so...canonical character undeath?), Black Character(s), Canonical Character Death, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Ghosts, Mentions of Abra Stone/OFC, Mentions of Dan Torrance/Billy Freeman, Post-Canon, because they're queer! I don't make the rules!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:15:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24548230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ageofgeek/pseuds/ageofgeek
Summary: Abra is struggling with her first crush.  Who helps her out?  None other than Danny Torrance, her unofficial Ghost Dad.
Relationships: Abra Stone & Dan "Danny" Torrance
Comments: 12
Kudos: 56





	When In Doubt, Ask Your Ghost Dad

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm super late to the ballgame and saw Doctor Sleep yesterday, and I absolutely fell in love with it (and specifically, with Dan & Abra's found family relationship). I was upset that they killed Danny, but I was appeased by the fact that he doesn't die in the book, and that even in the movie, he sticks around to help Abra. This was born of my desire to see how Ghost!Dan and Abra's relationship could've developed years after the movie ended.

It was around 3pm on a Thursday when Abra Stone realized that she had a huge crush on the girl in her Intro to Politics class.

At first, this didn’t really bother her - her sexuality hadn’t really been an issue, even though she had definitely thought about it. Nobody had ever really been interested in her before (and unlike other kids, she knew that for a fact), and she, in return, had never really been interested in anyone else.

But that changed when she met Letitia. Letitia Wilson, who was so cool and so confident and so,  _ so _ pretty, it was actually unfair. Letitia Wilson, who wore her hair in proud cornrows while Abra tried to wrestle her hair into something that wasn’t a frizzy mess (she really missed her dad). Letitia Wilson, who grinned at Abra on their first day of classes and projected,  _ damn, she’s cute _ .

Okay, so maybe Abra had realized it a little earlier than 3pm on a Thursday. But that was the first time that she looked at her phone, saw the two smiling emojis that Letitia had texted her along with the class notes that she had missed, and groaned in panic.

“Fuck,” she whispered, placing her head against her desk and trying not to blush. Alright, so this was new territory for her. Didn’t mean she couldn’t handle it. Asking someone out on a date definitely wasn’t harder than stopping a cult of evil, psychic vampires, right? Or surviving an encounter with the most haunted hotel this side of the Atlantic?

“No, of course not. It’s easy. Just text her and...ask her out for coffee! That’s...a thing that people do, right?” Abra smiled in her desk mirror unconvincingly, and then groaned. Fuck. She was not cut out for this. Maybe she could plant a psychic suggestion in herself...convince herself to be more confident than she actually was. Shit, could that work?

“No, Abra, it can’t work,” a familiar voice sighed in amusement. Abra’s peripheral vision lit up in a bright light as one of her two remaining family members appeared.

“Hi, Uncle Danny,” Abra sighed, looking up from her desk at him.

All of these years, he had remained unchanged since the first time he had appeared after the Overlook. Still wearing that soft flannel and denim jacket, still clean-shaven, still smelling like hospital antiseptic and fall in New England and  _ home, family, belonging. _

Now, he sat cross-legged on her roommate’s bed, who was thankfully in class at the moment. As much as she genuinely liked Catherine, she definitely didn’t want to talk to her ghostly uncle/mentor/spirit dad(?) in front of her.

“I like what you’ve done with the place,” her Uncle Danny said, grinning at her as he inspected the posters on her wall. “Still into RWBY, I see - what season are they up to anyway?”

“Season 10 premieres next month,” Abra grumbled, still not totally appreciating him interrupting her self-pitying session.

“You better not watch it without me,” Danny said seriously, but there was a mischievous glint in his eyes.

“Don’t you have anything better to do?” Abra asked, exasperated. “Isn’t there Netflix in the afterlife? And get off Cat’s bed, it doesn’t matter that she can’t see you, it’s rude!”

Danny laughed, unrestrained and free, and she couldn’t help but smile with him as his shine pressed against hers reassuringly. She had been mad at him for a while after the Overlook - still so scared to lose him, to lose the only other person who had ever  _ really _ understood her - but once he assured her that he wasn’t going anywhere, that she probably would want to get rid of him after a while (and boy, was that true), she quickly forgave him. And besides, he was so much happier now than he had been when he was alive - it was so hard to be mad at him when his entire presence lit up a room and made their mental link swell with joy.

(Danny didn’t tell her much about the afterlife, but she knew his happiness had something to do with his mom, an old cook, and a certain AA sponsor).

“No, I’m afraid we don’t have access to cheesy anime in the Great Beyond,” Danny said, disappearing and reappearing on Abra’s own bed ( **_that’s not what I meant,_ ** she muttered inwardly, and Danny smirked again at her exasperation).

“Good to know,” Abra said, “But that doesn’t answer my first question. Why are you dropping in now? And if it’s to nag me about practicing my shielding, I don’t wanna hear it - I have an essay due for my World Religions class tomorrow.”

“Don’t worry,” Danny said, watching as she got up from her desk chair and sat next to him on her bed. “I’m, uh, I’m not in teacher mode right now. I just...felt some distress and thought I would come and check in on you.”

Abra furiously tried to suppress the blush that she could feel creeping over her face - by Uncle Danny’s knowing look, she failed miserably.

“So…” he nudged her mind with his own, and Abra felt a wave of peace roll over her. “What’s going on, hun?”

Abra shrugged. She looked down at her hands and watched her feet swing.

“I know there are some things you don’t feel comfortable talking about with me,” Uncle Danny said softly. “But something is telling me that you  _ do  _ want to talk about this.”

Abra sighed, because shit, he was right. “Is that ‘something’ your shine, or is it you knowing me too well?”

Danny smiled. “Both, I guess.”

Abra sighed again and took a second to gather her thoughts. “I guess I...kind of, sort of, have a crush on this...person in my Poli-Sci class.”

She glanced over at him hesitantly and he nodded at her encouragingly.

“It’s...well, it’s this,” she breathed deeply before continuing, “this  _ girl  _ named Letitia, and she’s really nice to me, but she’s way,  _ way _ out of my league, she’s totally normal and not weird at all, but I know that she thinks I’m cute, but I don’t know if she’s really interested in, you know, me, or if it’s just, um, physical--”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Danny said, “slow down, Abra, let’s take this one step at a time, okay?”

Abra pursed her lips and nodded. She didn’t know if she could look at him right now. She didn’t think that he would care about her crush being a girl, but she hadn’t really considered until that moment that if he  _ did _ care, she could lose one of the two people she was closest to--

“Abra.” Danny’s voice was soft, but kind. She felt his hand on her shoulder; like always, it was warm, and buzzed with a familiar, shining energy. It was comforting - it had always been comforting, she had felt it even when he had been alive.

When she looked back up at him, he was smiling. “Abra, you know I couldn’t care less about who you love. Well, that’s not true, I definitely care about who you love because they need to be good to you, but, uh--” Abra giggled as he floundered and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, “yeah, you know what I mean. I just want you to be happy, okay?”

Abra nodded, relief seeping through her and easing any remaining tension.

“Plus, it’d be a bit hypocritical of me,” Dan said with a shrug, “you know, with Billy and I--”

“No, no, shut up!” Abra covered her ears and shook her head, relief being replaced by disgust. “I told you I didn’t wanna hear about this, you mentally scarred me last time, Uncle Danny!”

He laughed goodnaturedly, and held up his hands in surrender. “Alright, alright, fair enough. Let’s just say that I understand, and I’m definitely not ashamed of you or anything like that.

“So…,” he nudged her again. “Tell me about this girl.”

“Well, like I said, her name’s Letitia. She’s a freshman like me, and she’s from Nevada.” Abra smiled as she remembered overhearing Letitia complain about the chill of New Hampshire in the fall. “She’s thinking of majoring in Poli-Sci or History, so she’s taking our Intro to Poli-Sci class for her core and her major. She…”

Abra trailed off, a little hesitant to confess that she had overheard Letitia’s thoughts. When she was younger, she had often dipped into other people’s heads, skimming their surface thoughts to entertain herself like a form of psychic people-watching. Uncle Danny hadn’t disapproved, but he did try to teach her about the importance of respecting other people’s privacy, especially people she was close to (of course, all of that went out the window if her life was in danger, which luckily, the shining was pretty good at detecting too).

“She thought I was cute - like, I overheard her think that I was cute - but I don’t know how serious it was.”

Danny hummed. “Well, if she was thinking it loud enough for you to hear it without searching, then she must have meant it, huh?”

Abra blinked. She hadn’t thought of it that way.

Dan chuckled. “Even if you hadn’t heard her thoughts, though...there’s nothing to stop you from just asking her out.”

“Yeah, but--”

“Uh uh, no buts,” Dan interrupted, and his raised eyebrow told her that he knew what she had been about to say. “You’re a great person, Abra. I know you know that.” He raised an eyebrow at her, and she rolled her eyes in response.

“I know that high school was tough--” Abra tensed up as she remembered the cold, stony silences in the hallways; the psychic whispers of disgust and fear from not only students, but teachers too ( _ freak probably killed her dad, burned down that hotel too _ ), “--but this is a new world. A clean slate. And I can personally vouch for how important a clean slate is.”

Abra hesitated. “But...what if she rejects me? I mean, I think she’s becoming my friend, and I really like her. Should I risk that just to take a chance on dating her?”

Dan didn’t dismiss her fears, which she appreciated. “If she does turn you down, then things might be awkward for a little while - but if she really does want to be your friend, you two will move past it. And if she can’t deal with it,” he shrugged, “then maybe she didn’t deserve you in the first place.”

Abra sat for a few moments, considering that. The rumors in high school - both mental and aloud - after the Knot incident had really lowered her self-esteem (or so her therapist said). Her mom had helped, but she was grieving her husband just like Abra was grieving her dad. Uncle Danny had been more understanding - and hadn’t been weighed down by sadness - but he also stumbled sometimes in his “guardianship,” as he called it. Mr. Hallorann had helped too, after Danny had introduced him to her - he reminded her of her Papa, who always had a story and smelled like the Florida sunlight and oranges. But none of them were friends - people her own age who actually liked her for who she was.

Letitia and Cat, and Ji-yoon and Andrew in her Psych class, and Mike and Tamara from the BSU - they were all the first real friends she had had since she was a kid. She didn’t want to ruin that.

“I just,” Abra sighed. “I guess I just don’t want her to figure out what I’m  _ really _ like and then decide she doesn’t like me anymore.”

Uncle Danny’s answering smile was lined with sadness, but it mostly shone with love and support. “Who you  _ really _ are, Abra Stone, is a special, kind, and wonderful young girl, who is quickly growing into a special, kind, and wonderful young woman. And I think that Letitia will see that, even if she’s not interested in you romantically.”

Abra smiled, before nodding, a bit of her confidence restored. Dan wrapped an arm around her shoulder, and she easily leaned against him _.  _ “Remember what I told you that first night after the Overlook?”

Abra smiled wider at the memory, and whispered, “Shine on, Abra Stone. Shine on.”

“That’s right,” Dan replied, leaning against the top of her head. “Shine on.”

When Abra mentally nudged against him in acknowledgement, she could see that his mind was a calm, peaceful lake, rather than the cold confusion of the maze at the Overlook. He had moved beyond his demons - it was time for Abra to move beyond hers.

“Thanks, Uncle Danny,” Abra shifted slightly to hug him properly, and he wrapped his arms around her easily.

They rested like that for a few minutes, and Abra thought about her dad. Dan could never replace him (and she knew he would never try to), but she had been right when she told him that they were related through the shining. There was a link between them - made when they switched places in the car with the Crow, and when she brought him back to himself in Room 237 of the Overlook. And now, even after he was dead, that link lived on.

She thought about Dick Hallorann, Uncle Danny’s own mentor in the shining. Then she thought about Uncle Danny. And then she thought about herself. Maybe, one day, there’d be someone who she could hold like Uncle Danny was holding her. Someone she could teach like Uncle Danny was teaching her (someone she could save, like Uncle Danny had saved her). The shining pulsed in confirmation, and she felt him chuckle underneath her cheek - he had felt it too.

“It’s a good thing,” Dan murmured. “One day, somebody will barge into your life just like you barged into mine, and they’ll give your life more meaning than you thought possible.”

Abra’s eyes burned slightly at that, but the tears quickly went away when she willed them to. Slowly, she got up from Danny’s embrace and folded her legs under her on the bed.

“Any other words of wisdom, Casper?” Abra asked teasingly, laughing as Dan rolled his eyes at the nickname.

“I really wish your mother hadn’t shown you that movie,” he muttered, but the glint of affection in his eyes remained.

“We all wish for a lot of things,” Abra shrugged with a grin. “Now get out of here before my roommate comes back - I don’t really feel like having to explain why I’m talking to thin air.”

“So you’re going to ask Letitia out?” Dan asked, and Abra grabbed a pillow to hit him as he laughed.

“Yeah, yeah, alright, I’ll ask her out when I’m ready. Satisfied?”

Dan held up both hands in surrender and scooted off the bed. “Good luck on your essay. And, you know, with…” he gestured vaguely in the air, and she threw the pillow at him again as he disappeared with a laugh. But the feeling of his shine remained in the air and in her mind for a while as she grabbed her backpack and took out her laptop.

When her uncle’s shine had finally faded, she looked at her Word doc - a few sentences of the intro already written - and saved it before closing the document. Smiling, she picked up her phone, pulled up her chat with Letitia, and began to type.

**Author's Note:**

> And then Abra asked Leticia out on a date, and Dan watched from a distance with two thumbs up.
> 
> I wanted to quickly touch on some things that cropped up as I was writing this. I'm white, and due to recent events, I'm trying to be better in my depiction of characters of color. I was disappointed in the movie that the one black figure in Abra's life (her dad) was killed, so I tried to emphasize that Dan is **not** taking that place in her life, nor could he. But he **is** her family and her mentor. Along those same lines, although he didn't appear in this fic, I really like the idea of Dick Hallorann appearing to Abra after the events of the movie, and taking on a sort of grandfatherly role (similarly to how he was with Dan).
> 
> Also, I struggled a little bit with writing Abra, because she is an amazingly confident and strong young girl, in the movie and the book, but there are a lot of hints about her underlying insecurities (her parents being afraid of her, bullying at school, etc.). I tried to portray that conflict in her as best I could!
> 
> Finally, here are some notes I wrote on my phone when I began writing this: #no stephen king i DON'T know how the shining works #but since i’ve been reading a lot of star wars fics #and ewan mcgregor is in this movie too #i choose to believe it’s like a Force bond #fuck it #Abra is Dan's padawan #I SAID WHAT I SAID


End file.
